The main idea might have been banning secret videotapings of films in theaters, but U.S. House lawmakers also snuck into the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act – passed late last week – a clause that says, in essence, that you can cut the sex and violence out but don’t even think about cutting out the commercials.
That’s part of a clause giving federal protection to the special DVD player made by Utah-based ClearPlay, in which you can rent or buy a DVD that happens to have sexual scenes or graphic violence and bypass those scenes without stopping play of the feature, but you cannot change or even erase "commercial advertisements, or… network or station promotional announcements, that would otherwise be performed or displayed before, during or after the performance of the motion picture."
That was the language inserted into the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). Smith said the original ClearPlay idea is an easy way for parents to keep the sex and violence out of movies they let their children watch, but he didn’t exactly say why blocking commercials for home use on DVDs was any different than VCR users who have been blocking commercials from home recording for years.
"This is the electronic equivalent of what parents did a generation ago to protect their children by muting the sound or fast-forwarding over objectionable material," Smith said in a statement after the bill passed. "I believe that the rights of parents to protect their children are essential."
ClearPlay offers lists of films it has filtered for sex and violence. Hollywood may have been skittish about “a handful of programmers” playing around with film content even if they might have liked the provisions that bar surreptitious recording for Internet distribution. But they argue the ClearPlay player and similar devices smack of copyright violation as well as violating artistic freedom.
But the part that blocks people from zapping the commercials may cause the bill legal trouble, according to some reports. Smith said that clause was aimed only at technology similar to ClearPlay, but some thing it could also be used to ban major functions of personal recorders like TiVo – which lets you record television shows to a hard drive and fast-forward through the commercials.
Public Knowledge communications director Art Brodsky said that clause was just another play by Hollywood to take total control of viewing and listening habits of ordinary consumers. TiVo attorney James Burger, however, told reporters lawmakers promised they’d agree in due course on revised language that specifies the bill doesn’t take aim at TiVo-like products. The Senate has a similar bill that doesn’t address a particular player explicitly.
"We are pleased we were able to work with the House and Senate staff and other interested parties,” Burger said, “to add language making sure that (personal recording) functionality would not be able to be called in question by this otherwise important legislation.”
